Many people are affected by a variety of health problems including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and elevated cholesterol levels which can be linked to poor habits in diet, exercise, and the like. Although people are generally aware that controlling diet, exercise, and similar lifestyle habits is the easiest way to become or stay healthy, getting them to adopt and maintain these habits is a difficult task. Many people do not have access to information or to systems or methods that can effectively assist them in these challenging endeavors.
Dieting has become an extremely popular activity resulting from people's awareness of the health risks of becoming overweight or obese, a desire to improve one's appearance, and an aspiration to achieve the sense of accomplishment that comes from setting a difficult goal and accomplishing it. However, there is no singular method of dieting that works for every person. Body types, weight loss goals, and preferences vary greatly depending on the individual. Every dieter has individual likes and dislikes as to types of food, times and places to eat, type and length of exercise, eating habits, etc. Due to these differences, many dieters become frustrated with rigid, impersonal diets, and often quit the diet after a short time.
Furthermore, dieters differ on how well they can motivate themselves to continue to adhere to certain dietary guidelines. For example, a dieter who is supposed to only eat a cup of pasta and a vegetable for lunch, but instead decides to eat an ice cream cone as well may be unable to justify such a decision within the diet and decide to give up the diet for the rest of the day. Because such “splurges” are detrimental to the dieter's physical and mental progress, the dieter may find the diet unsustainable.
Known regimes often require individuals to determine what to eat and when to eat as well as calculate the calories they have consumed (e.g., by determining the calorie count of all foods or adding points that are tied to the calorie counts of certain foods) and they must keep an exercise record and determine the caloric impact of their exercise on their overall regime. Current diet and exercise regimes typically restrict severely the types of food individuals can consume or the types of activities in which they are guided to participate. This lack of variety causes individuals to become frustrated with their regimes and to give up before they have experienced their desired results.
There are a few known methods and systems for assisting individuals with the maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits, but these methods and systems are expensive and often inaccessible to most people. For example, a highly effective method for assisting individuals in developing and maintaining healthy lifestyle habits is found through the use of coaching. Research has shown that individuals are more successful in the difficult endeavor of changing their habits and maintaining new, healthier ones when they are coached throughout the process. Coaching keeps individuals motivated, provides positive reinforcement, and introduces a narrowly-tailored plan, usually with specific intermediate goals, for each individual participant. However, obtaining a reliable human coach is difficult and often prohibitively expensive such that relatively few dieters are actually able to use one. In addition to purchasing the services of a human coach, it has been shown that the services of a personal chef, who is trained in preparing healthy meals, and/or those of a nutritionist, who is able to develop a personalized diet plan, are successful methods for an individual to be assisted in maintaining healthy lifestyle habits, but these methods are also expensive and thus inaccessible to many.
The present invention relates generally to systems that promote healthy lifestyles and, in some embodiments, to weight loss systems. The present invention is an improvement upon existing health behavior systems in that it provides an enhanced support system to help users follow a personalized plan. The present invention may be used to motivate dieters as well as keep them on a healthy diet while at the same time allowing flexibility in different dieting aspects including, but not limited to, types of food, types of food preparation, amount of food, and amount of exercise.
The present invention addresses the diet and exercise problems identified above by providing personalized plans to meet the needs and requirements of individuals. It uses tailored messages to “coach” individuals in following their personalized plans. An expert system uses information about an individual's diet and exercise preferences to provide tailored messages related to the plan. The individual receives personalized instruction in the dieting field, without having to pay the prohibitively expensive fees that are typically associated with personalized instruction. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention allow the individual to use portable devices and technology, such as cell phones, PDA's, Blackberrys™, iPhones™, and others, so that the individual has constant access to personalized instruction regarding his or her personalized diet and exercise plan.
It has been found, through the study of behavior informatics, that the use of technology can help people make significant changes in their health. Gradual change, over a longer period of time, is more effective for long-term health solutions, rather than behavior changes that are expected to take place rapidly, over a short period of time. Further, many dieters are more comfortable using familiar technology to assist them with their dieting, as opposed to unfamiliar and possibly uncomfortable office and training room sessions with an actual dietitian and trainer. The present invention incorporates these concepts into a diet and exercise instructional platform based on individuals' preferences to increase the likelihood that individuals will adopt and follow a plan that helps them reach their personal goals.
In an attempt to make the services of coaches, nutritionists, personal chefs, and the like accessible to those who could not afford them otherwise, many books have been written and/or home videos produced that focus on disseminating the type of expert information these individuals typically offer their clients. Unfortunately, those who invest in these books and/or videos are noticeably less likely to maintain the healthy lifestyle habits they aim to encourage than those who invest in the actual expert services. The mass marketed materials are aimed at a wide audience and cannot meet the needs of each individual purchaser. The difference that actual health and fitness experts can provide is the ability to provide their clients with appropriate strategies and plans tailored to the individual thereby reducing or eliminating the various barriers to success.
In light of these foregoing problems with known systems and methods, there is a need for a generally affordable and accessible system and method that assists in the maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits by providing individual users with a diet, exercise, or other health regime specifically tailored around their personal preferences so that they are not restricted to the point that they become frustrated thus discontinuing their practice of the regime's healthy habits. Additionally, there is a need for a system and method that assists individual users in determining what activities they should be completing and when. For example, in the area of dieting, there is a need for a system and method for assisting users with determining what foods to eat and when to eat them. The system and method should account for an individual user's preferences. Furthermore, the system and method should provide individual users with personalized guidance, strategies, and support similar to that which can be provided by health, fitness, and other behavioral experts in order to maximize the probability that individuals will successfully maintain healthy lifestyle habits. Finally, the system and method should reward users when they reach intermediate and specific goals so they are motivated to continue with the plan. Keeping individuals motivated is important in helping them achieve lifestyle changes.
The present invention is a system and method for assisting with the maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits by generating tailored messages within an expert system and then pushing those messages to the corresponding individual users. The system and method of the present invention utilizes modern technologies, such as the cellular phone or other portable device, to facilitate the pushing of the tailored messages from the system's computer-based expert system to the individual users. Users provide personal information and commit to reaching specific goals or responding to specific challenges. Messages to users are directed to changing their health behaviors. Users are encouraged to reach an ultimate goal by reaching a series of intermediate goals while establishing healthy habits. Users are rewarded for intermediate goals and for overcoming challenges they face to help keep them focused on a lifestyle change.
In an example embodiment of the present invention directed to diet and exercise, plans are tailored to individual users based on their preferences, challenges, and goals. The system and method provides consistent and appropriate strategy messages for goals and challenges designed to encourage and motivate users toward successfully developing and maintaining healthy lifestyle habits. The personalized instruction of the present invention is based on an individual's diet plan preferences, food preferences, meal preparation preferences, and exercise preferences. Once the dieter's plan has been established, typically by providing preference and other information through an online website, the dieter is never required to access the site again as the personalized instruction is given through the dieter's portable technology. The prior art is known to center around “pull” technology, where the user must reach out to the system for the information, and if there is inaction by the user, the instruction will stop. Embodiments of the present invention utilize “push” technology, where the instruction is sent to the user, and inaction by the user will prompt the system to reach out to the user, for corrective actions and encouragement. Exemplary embodiments allow the individual user to utilize portable technology, such as cell phones, handheld computing devices, and personal digital assistants (PDA), so that the user has constant access to their personalized instruction and support.
In the present invention, rewards are incorporated into the personalized messages for each user. The rewards provide an incentive to the user to follow the personalized plan and to set and reach new goals or to overcome challenges. Rewards may be given for a number of reasons such as achieving an ultimate goal, losing a certain percentage of a prior bodyweight, losing a certain number of pounds, substituting a healthier meal for a suggested meal, eating healthy foods for a consecutive number of days, exercising consistently, or achieving a certain waist size. A reward may be a coupon or a check that is sent through the postal mail or a coupon that can be printed from the user's home printer. The rewards may also be permission for the user to enjoy a favorite food that is not part of the user's meal plan due to its unhealthy characteristics.
In addition to the novel features and advantages mentioned above, other features and advantages will be readily apparent from the following descriptions of the drawings and exemplary embodiments.